can anyone recommend a good rare breed hatchery?

[Stoney22]

All the hatcheries I've looked at which haven't been more than a handful have a wait on their silkies easter egger's or other rare breeds. Is there on that I could buy from and have my rares shipped within a month without going broke?

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Silkies and Easter Eggers are not rare breeds.
Most every hatchery has them and probably some local breeders near you will have some chicks, too.
Try Craigs List or your state agricultural paper.

 

[thekid]

I thought Murray McMurray was a rare breed hatchery?

 

[fluffandpuffchicks]

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Yea the last time I checked I though McMurray was pretty good. They have a good selection and ship their chickens in good health. I like McMurray the most.

 

[Blue]

Ideal has a large selection of breeds. I got my brabanters from there. Also, like someone else said, silkies and Easter Eggers aren't rare. I see them on Craigslist all the time. If you really want silkies, though, I'd try to find a dedicated breeder who breeds them to standard; they'll be much prettier birds than the hatchery ones. I had a red silkie rooster that I'm pretty sure was originally from a hatchery, and he was one of the ugliest silkies I'd ever seen (so ugly he was cute, but still).

 

[nickrex98]

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i have to disagree with you because at the Meyer hatchery they consider Easter Eggers to be a rare breed

 

[roysnider]

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i have to disagree with you because at the Meyer hatchery they consider Easter Eggers to be a rare breed

Easter Eggers are not actually a breed. They are a cross of a Ameraucana chicken and a good egg layer. So the Easter Egger is a common crossbreed. "True Ameraucana" are considered rare. Most all hatcheries that sell what they call "Ameraucana chickens" are actually selling "Easter Eggers". The reason why they do this is people want to buy good egg layers and they want chickens that lay blue or bluish green eggs.
We bought 3 "Ameraucana" chickens last year at the local feed store that came from a hatchery labeled "Ameraucana". We took them to a Poultry show and quickly found out that they were "Easter Eggers" (not purebred Ameraucana).
We now raise "Purebred Ameraucana" chickens and show them at Poultry shows.
To be rare there must be under 20% available from breeders and hatcheries. It could be that they have so many people buying them that they can't keep them in stock but that does not make them "rare".
Easter Eggers will carry some of the same traits of the "True Ameraucana" but will also carry the traits of the other breed in them.

Rare to Critical Breeds would be: Ameraucana, Araucana, Sumatra, Sicilian Buttercup Bantams, Buckeye, Faveroles, Andalusian, Phoenix, Yokohama, Nankins to name of few.

If you are wanting to raise rare breeds, than you might want to consider finding breeders of the breed instead of hatcheries. Hatcheries are usually mass producing the chickens and not making sure the good qualities of birds are passed on by selecting good parents to produce chicks from. Often times, the hatchery will have the wrong combs for the breeds and wrong colors for the breeds. So, I guess you just need to decide why you want to raise the rare breed and go from there with your search for your chickens. Good Luck! Any kind of chickens whether from breeders or hatcheries are lots of fun to raise. Enjoy!

 

[saddina]

The thing with "rare" is it's meaning varies. For example diamonds are "rare" as far as rocks go, but there's one in darn near every wedding ring. It's a similar situation, because EE and silkies aren't commercially grown (except for silkies in china) they're "rare" when compaired to all chickens raised. But when you get into small hobby flocks they're everywhere (i'm hatching some out as we speak, think I paid $15 for the eggs and shipping. The best place to start would be in the "where am i, where are you" threads for each state, that'll let you ask flock keepers near you, who will most likely have better stock than a hatchery.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=26

 

[mrheinz77]

County Line Hatchery in Coggon, Ia has some rare breeds. http://www.countylinehatchery.com They have show quality as well as production breeds.

What I've found is you get what you pay for. Sometimes the term rare is a marketing ploy when it comes to businesses.